Enterprise’s Stigma caused a firestorm among fans

Stigma wasn’t well-liked by Enterprise fans

Though Star Trek: Enterprise wasn’t the most well-liked by fans of the franchise, it did have its loyal viewers. (And it’s made more fans from being available on streaming channels.) Those fans kept the series going for four seasons, but they didn’t remain quiet when something happened that shook the canon for them. One such instance was the episode “Stigma.”

After the episode aired, the voicemail box for the production office was flooded with people calling and complaining…all about the same thing. “Vulcans don’t lie.” According to a quote by Chris Black, one of the writers for Enterprise, in the book, The Fifty Year Mission The Next 25 Years, “one guy shrieked into the voicemail, ‘Vulcans don’t lie! Vulcans don’t lie! Vulcans don’t lie!’ Just saying it over and over again.”

Another fan had started calling the writers’ office at six a.m. When he finally managed to reach one of the writer’s assistants, he told him that a basic rule has just been violated.

"“You don’t know what you just did. You just violated a basic rule. Vulcans don’t lie! Vulcans don’t lie! And Mr. Spock said that.”"

Stigma was actually required by Viacom

When Rick Berman and Brannon Braga wrote the episode which was a metaphor for the AIDS epidemic, one of the reasons they did so was because it was required by Viacom. At the time, Viacom was the owner of the UPN Network which aired Enterprise, and it had issued a mandate that all of the television series that were fictional on its 2002-2003 schedule had to produce an episode that addressed the AIDS-HIV epidemic. It was part of a multi-year global campaign to raise awareness of AIDS and to combat the epidemic.

Unfortunately, fans weren’t as focused on the education behind “Stigma” as they were what they considered a most egregious error on the writers’ part. And that particular claim is up for debate, considering Ex Astris Scientia has an entire section of its website devoted to proof that Vulcans have manipulated the truth now and again. It’s a good thing social media wasn’t around at the time of the airing. The vitriol might have been more than a little harsher.